The Long Shadow of the Red Army Faction: How Old Explanatory Models Define Today's Terrorism Debate in Germany

The Red Army Faction's attack on the West-German state in the 1970s and 1980s still poses one of the most controversial issues in post-war German history. Its historical narratives have repeatedly been referred to and re-interpreted in political discourse and popular culture alike. However, this established, indeed canonised, story of German terrorism still looms large over the debates on terrorism in the 21st century. Thus, this article argues that recent terrorist threats from the radical right have been misinterpreted, and there are still common assumptions within German terrorism discourse that keep on evoking the ghosts of the past.